About Far & Near

Far & Near is a participatory art project which responds to the phenomenon of memorial benches in the UK.

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Far & Near takes the ongoing form of exhibitions, happenings, interventions and web provision which provide an opportunity for participation through giving a dedication or memorial in memory of a loved-one, and features painting, film, music and installation.

In October 2016, Linda Ingham and David Power were awarded funds through Arts Council England’s Grants for the Arts programme, to create a project which responds to, and explores, the phenomenon of the memorial bench and informal methods of remembrance through an 18-month-long programme of events.

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The first happening took place on the winter solstice, 2016, when Ingham ‘dressed’ a coastal bench in Lincolnshire with gathered memorials provided by local people and passers-by. This resulted in a film with music by David Power which sets the poem Solitude 80 by Ronald Duncan.

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That evening, an intimate group of invited friends gathered in the darkness at the bench lit by firelight to hear Ingham read out a series of contributed dedications and poet Maria Garner perform her Solstice poems, resulting in a second film.

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Far & Near next took on the form of installation as part of the Neverends: image, music, text series of exhibitions.

A selection of work from the Arts Council Collection by Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Andy Goldsworthy, Martin Parr, Jane Harris, Birgit Skiold and Brian Alterio curated by Linda Ingham, along with Far & Near, drawings and poetry by Judith Tucker and Harriet Tarlo, and paintings by David Ainley – An exhibition responding to issues surrounding notions of place, in, round and through.

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Neverends II – 24th October – 1st November 2017 – Leeds University School of Design, Foyer Gallery, Clothworkers Central – Judith Tucker, Harriet Tarlo, David Ainley, Linda Ingham & David Power - This exhibition offers an opportunity to look at artists deeply engaged with the landscapes of the North and Lincolnshire. Neverends is a consideration of the ways in which personal, industrial and recreational memories linger in place.

Neverends III – 10th March – 22nd April 2018 – Ropewalk Contemporary Arts & Crafts Centre, Barton Upon Humber – Judith Tucker, Harriet Tarlo, Linda Ingham & David Power - A variation on Neverends II, this show offers series of works by artists deeply engaged with the landscapes of the North and Lincolnshire and contribute to the Far & Near project.

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Contribute

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If you would like your memorial to a loved-one to be included in this project, please click the link below. We will then write the memory onto a postcard for use in our happenings and events, and display in our online archive.

Neverends: art music text

Far & Near

grief and remembrance of individuals in public space, through the creation of a range of informal memorials that frame a ‘Third Emotional Space’ for the bereaved. The material memorialscape is indicative of the interwoven narrative journeys in and through particular place-temporalities for the living, for whom bereavement is a confluence of emotional-spiritual-practical way-finding.

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Avril Maddrell, Living with the deceased: absence, presence and absence-presence, 2013 (Cultural Geographies)